A Muslim teacher in India suffering from impaired vision has claimed she was denied renting accommodation because of her religion, The Hindustan Times reported on Saturday.
“When I arrived at the flat with my luggage the landlord refused to give me the keys saying she could not rent the flat to a Muslim,” Reem Shamsudeen said in a video posted on YouTube.
The 20-year-old, an assistant English professor at Delhi University, said she had paid in advance for the accommodation so she and her mother could move into the flat after the summer holidays.
In the video which went viral on social media and received about 15,000 views, Shamsudeen requested the chief minister of Delhi to look into the matter and guarantee that people do not face discrimination based on their religion.
“I believe… Delhi you promised to accommodate every citizen, Bihari, Bengali, Malayali, Manipuri, Kashmiri, Goan, black, white, man, woman, transgender, gay, blind, deaf, homeless,” she said as she addressed the chief minister.
She added, “I hope no one will have to encounter this kind of shameful and inhuman experience in future and I urge you to kindly look into the issue.”
“Of course this was a shocking experience, considering Delhi boasts of a cosmopolitan and metropolitan nature all the time,” she went on to say, adding that she never experienced discrimination based on religion while she lived in Hyderabad. The thirty-year-old lived in Hyderabad for eight years to complete her MA, MPhil and PhD.
Although she has since rented another flat along with her mother, Shamsudeen said she was horrified by the experience. narrating that the landlord refused to hand her the keys for the apartment because she is Muslim.
Social activists have taken up Shamsudeen’s case with the National Commission for Minorities and are hoping get the Delhi government to look into the matter as well.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Shamsudeen said that this was not an isolated case of discrimination and told the paper that she has nothing further to say on the incident.
Meanwhile, sources from the college reported the 30-year-old did not want her case to be politicised. “She does not want the incident to get politicised. May be she is scared about her job,” a teacher said.
